Braid
by love-and-joy
Summary: Peeta tries to do Katniss's hair. A light hearted one shot.


**A/N: I HAD ONE OF MY SPONTANEOUS INSPIRATIONAL SPREE FROM A FANART, AND SCRIBBLED IT DOWN BEFORE IT DISSOLVED INTO NOTHINGNESS. SO, HERE'S A DRABBLE OF KATNISS AND PEETA, POST-REBELLION STAGE.**

* * *

Peeta had gone to the town early that morning for some work. Buttercup sat at the edge of Katniss's bed, taunting her.

"I still don't understand why I haven't drowned you yet." She said to the grumpy tom cat with eyes the color of rotten squash. Without Peeta, the house felt empty. Though Haymich had been dried at District thirteen, he still was a late riser. Peeta was too. Normally, Katniss snuck out in the morning, hunting in the woods while Peeta was still asleep. When she returned Peeta would be up, fresh bread with cheese baked on top of it waiting for her on the kitchen table.

But Peeta was out early this morning, and for the winter, Katniss was being lazy. So, she had not gone to the woods.

The cat mewed angrily.

"Goodness, if it hadn't been for Prim." She said. The memory of her little sister hit her like a tornado in the chest.

"I didn't drown you." Katniss said sadly. "Because you loved Prim."

Between lingering in bed and lazying around she set pans of bread batter in the oven. They might not be as good as Peeta's but she wanted to do something different.

When the oven beeped and Katniss got up from her chair, Butter cup jumped on the table, knocking off a bowl of flour. The bowl fell through the air, with a cloud of flour trailing it, then it hit the floor with a dull sound, fanning the flour all over.

"You cat!" Katniss shouted angrily lifting a pan over her head. The cat scurried away. But she remembered the bread, so instead of pursuing the cat, she went to the oven, circling around the fallen bowl and flour, avoiding to make any more mess of the flour by shuffling through it.

She has to clean it now.

Sometimes she wondered why on the earth did the cat increased her chores by two-fold.

Katniss was so lost in thought that she had forgotten to put on gloves before touching the trays.

With a groan, she pulled her hand back at the shearing heat.

"Goodness!"

* * *

"Girl on fire, you should seriously stay away from fire." Peeta laughs at his own words. Katniss scowls.

Katniss holds out her burnt hands awakwardly infront of her while Peeta runs the comb through her hair.

"Peeta!" She yells when the comb gets stuck in a tangle.

"Im sorry." He says sheepishly, "this is new to me."

"Of course it is." Katniss mumbles.

Peeta has never seen his mother doing her own hair. He didn't have any sister either, so he never saw his mother doing anyone's hair for that fact. But he has seen Katniss braid her hair in the arena, and Prim at home.

So he tried his best to recreat it.

Katniss did some kind of complicated upside down braid in the arena. That's hard. But he tries the normal one. The simple one.

He split her smooth, black tresses into three sections and weaves them together. The ones on the periphery should come to the middle alternately. His fingers not being so obidient, yet he managed to manuevour through half the length of her hair when he lost track. Yet again. Its the third time he re-started the braid.

His brows knit together in confusion as Peeta stares at his handiwork. This is the farthest he came. And it even looks good not moderate, yet in the end, his finger were still, entwinted in the soft dark strands.

Baking bread is easier.

"Peeta." Katniss said when she felt him stop. "Yet again?"

"Yet again." He mumbled like a child.

"Let it be." She said.

"No." He said. "I can do it. This time I'll get it right."

He combed his fingers down her hair, the twisted strands fell loose in a thick curtain down her back, pooling at her shoulders. Katniss loved the touch of his fingers against her scalp but it was being a bit too much not to start hurting.

"Don't you dare touch the oven again."

He starts for the forth time the complicated task of doing someone's hair.

"You should see the braids my mother does."

"I have." He said. "On the reaping day, you wore something like that?"

She nods.

"Katniss!" He complains when his finger coordination fails again for her nodding.

"I've been sitting here for so long!" She said in a bored tone.

"Just done!"

"Just, not almost."

"Its the first time I'm doing your hair."

"Yeah-yeah."

After failing for the fifth time, Peeta finally gets the braid done and a sense of accomplishment washes over him as he secures it with an elastic.

"Done!" He said a little too animatedly for a task simple as that for Katniss. But surely, she thought, having failed five times, he must be feeling happy on finally having done it."

"My scalp hurts more than the burns." She remarks.

Peeta grins stupidly.

"Girl on fire." He just said.

She turns around and kisses him on the lips. His mouth felt warm and soft. Slightly chapped. And his breath of fresh bake. She had begun to open up to him finally. And it felt good, to be free at last. To not be afraid after a long time. Even though the damage done would never leave them in peace.

But something is better than nothing.

"I do appreciate it though." She said. "Its real lovely. Thank you."

Peeta had not been able to secure the shorter strands and now they fall loose, framing her face. He tucks them behind her ears.

"You're welcome." He smiled.


End file.
